Mother has newborn taken away as she tests positive for opiates after eating poppy seed bagel before delivery
A mother in New York was forcefully separated from her newborn baby boy after she ate a poppy seed bagel just before she went into labor. This caused her to fail a drug test earlier this month. 29-year-old Elizabeth Dominguez from Tonawanda decided that she would treat herself to the savory dish only hours before she went into labor with her third child on May 1.
WKBW reported that when she arrived at the hospital in order to give birth, the expectant mother was asked for a urine sample and was later left shocked when the results came back positive for opiates. Speaking to the outlet, the mother said: "I called my husband freaking out saying 'How is this possible?' I don’t do drugs!"
Dominguez gave birth to baby Carter later that same day and the staff at the hospital followed protocol by contacting Child Protective Services. Even though Carter's tests did not show the presence of any opiates in his system, the infant was required to stay in the hospital under medical supervision.
His mother, in the meantime, was discharged and separated from him. Further tests on Dominguez showed that she only got the positive reading in the initial test because of the poppy seeds on the bagel that she ate.
One doctor told the outlet that the seeds on the bagel come from the opium plant. The medic said: "In some cases eating a large amount of poppy seed such as the kind found in a bagel has been shown to produce low levels of morphine and codeine in the urine." They added that it was very likely that the seeds on the bagel "had not been washed".
Even though Dominguez was reunited with her baby boy at the end, she said that the whole ordeal was terrifying. She stated: "I felt like a terrible mother leaving him [Carter]. I just want everyone to know that this could happen. It’s such a terrible thing and I don't want it to happen to anyone."